Game 2010.129: Tigers at Blue Jays

Tigers are in a nice little run, thanks to their starting pitching. They have seven consecutive quality starts and a 1.09 ERA during that time. They have won 6/7 (let’s put that 8th inning Valverde debacle behind us) and are reminding us why May and June were so much fun. The bats haven’t been too bad either, as the boys are averaging over 7 runs per game during the run.

Shawn Marcum got hit pretty hard by the Red Sox two weeks ago, allowing 4 HRs and 8 ER in only 4 innings of work. That said, he’s been pretty good all season posting a 3.70 ERA and 1.13 WHIP. He walks just over 2 per game, while striking out a hefty 8 batters per 9. As you would expect for a power pitcher, he’s a flyball guy. He and JV have almost identical GO/AO ratios ( .86 for Marcum and .79 for JV).

The Blue Jays hit a lot of home runs. Tigers did a good job limiting this yesterday (where did Bautista’s year come from?), but the Blue Jays lead the league with 193 HRs. Contrast that with Detroit’s 112 which is 10th in the AL. (Cle, KC, Sea and Oak have all hit less than 100). Bautista’s previous high HR for a season was 16, and his only career OPS+ positive season was last year, when it was 101. This year it is 165. Yeah, 165.

Verlander has been pretty good over his last three games, posting a 2-1 record with 2.37 ERA, despite a 1.42 WHIP. The biggest offender in that WHIP is the very un-Verlander like 5 walks in 5 innings in the loss against the Yankees 10 days ago. On the year he’s walking about 3 1/3 per game, which isn’t great, but not too far off of his career average of just over 3.

in case anybody was wondering, Brandon Inge is 29 strike outs away from (surpassing Whitaker) becoming the all time Tiger SO leader – for some perspective though, Whitaker’s 1099 career SO’s occurred over a 19 yr career, 8570 AB’s; Mr. Inge on the other hand achieved his total over ten years and 4208 ABs…